Preaching, not because I can, but because He called.

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The Scenic Route

As a motorcyclist there was once a time I didn’t worry too much about the scenery around me, the curves ahead of me took priority as enjoyed the wonders of a powerful sport-bike. But I’m slowing down. Perhaps because of my engine-smaller-than-a-lawnmower motorcycle, or perhaps because of my age. No, I don’t mean the slower reflexes that can come with ageing (they were never that great to begin with), but the greater appreciation of the wonder and beauty around me that seems to come with maturity (wow, did I really just admit to being somewhat mature?).

This wonder is afforded me everyday during my daily commute having traded my mostly-city-trek in for a country trek. And as I rode the number 2 into Cobourg recently my mind turned from all that was beautiful and pleasing to the eye around me, to all that I could not see, nor even comprehend. How many animals, lurking and working, went unnoticed in the fields and forests as I rode by? Likely thousands. How many bugs and insects were there along my scenic route, each playing their important role in the ecosystem? Judging by how many end up on my jacket and visor, likely millions. How many leaves and trees? How many worms in the soil? How many raindrops fell last night playing their important role of irrigation (and we don’t even get a water-bill for it!)? And do we really understand how it all works together to sustain life? You get the idea, the scenic route is beautiful in what can be seen, but it is also wonderful in what cannot be seen or even understood.

Last Sunday being Trinity Sunday we considered how beautiful and wonderful the doctrine of the Trinity is. We may have difficulty understanding precisely how it is that we have One God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But like the scenic route we can appreciate the wonder behind all that we cannot comprehend. It is a beautiful moment when people are reconciled, wrongs are forgiven, relationships re-established. How much more beautiful when we are reconciled to God, given a new standing and a new start. That cannot happen without the reality of the Trinity. The Bible does not say “For God so loved the world, that he said, ‘whatever,’ or ‘no biggie'”. God is more holy than we can comprehend. Sin must be dealt with. The Bible does not say “For God so loved the world that he chose the most righteous person he could find to dump the punishment for its sin on.” God is more loving that we can comprehend. He would deal with our brokenness and fallen nature in the most compassionate way possible. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16 NIV) His one and only son,

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death —
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8 NIV)

In Jesus, God gave Himself for us. At the cross His holiness and His love intersect in a most wonderful way.

The Trinitarian understanding of God has met much criticism for being hard to ‘figure out’. But it is a reality which, like the scenic route with all that is beyond our imagination laying within it, is far more wonderful than we know.